University of North Carolina Athletics
Photo by: Maggie Hobson
Lucas: Difficult
January 3, 2026 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
An SMU explosion made Saturday a difficult day.
By Adam Lucas
DALLAS—As Moody Coliseum emptied around 3:30 local time on Saturday afternoon, Boopie Miller emerged from the SMU locker room holding the game ball. He had earned it.
Miller was the engine behind a 97-point explosion that saw SMU race to a 97-83 victory that included a 58-point second half from the Mustangs. In that decisive half, the trio of Miller, BJ Edwards and Corey Washington had 45 points and ten assists with one turnover. In that half, Carolina's entire team had 44 points and eight assists with four turnovers. The Mustangs put up 1.43 points per possession for the game and a scalding 1.71 in the second half.
And it all came against a Carolina team that entered the game third in the nation and tops in the Atlantic Coast Conference in field goal percentage defense. The Tar Heels didn't have three straight stops in the entire second half and did it just twice in the final 35 minutes of the game.
Honestly, the biggest surprise as Miller held the game ball is that there weren't still flames coming out of it.
"They've got really good guard play that can get anywhere out there on the floor," Hubert Davis said on the Tar Heel Sports Network. "With their quickness and ability to get to their spots they can score and distribute. They have good spacing. Boopie controlled everything with the ball and it's very tough to get the ball out of his hands. When we did, guys stepped up and made a three."
That's really the story of the game: the potent SMU offense, which now leads the ACC in scoring. Carolina has two losses this season and in both of those games, the opposing point guard—Michigan State's Jeremy Fears Jr. and SMU's Miller—dictated play by getting to any spot on the floor that he wanted.
And while it's probably not reasonable to expect the Carolina offense to keep pace with an opponent that is putting up season-high production, Davis was frustrated with some of the Heels' second half struggles.
"It felt like everything we did from an offensive standpoint was hard and difficult," Davis said. "Every cut and move and dribble and shot was just very difficult. Even in transition it seemed difficult to score. We need to look at that."
On a day when there was a huge Carolina turnout in Dallas—the cheers when the Heels took the floor in pregame caused multiple SMU players to noticeably raise an eyebrow—the visitors relied mostly on Seth Trimble to dictate the offense. He played 36 minutes, more than Kyan Evans (14) and Derek Dixon (17) combined.
Trimble was productive, scoring 22 points to go with his five assists and zero turnovers. But he also looked fatigued in the second half (Carolina had to take an uncharacteristic timeout with 8:59 remaining just to provide a breather for some tired Heels), the product of having to chase Miller around every square inch of the court while also being responsible for generating so much of the offense.
Normally, some of that burden would have fallen on Carolina's talented frontcourt duo, but for one of the first times this season, both Henri Veesaar (6-for-11) and Caleb Wilson (4-for-11) looked rather human in the same game.
The offensive concerns, however, are secondary. "We still shot 48 percent from the field," Davis said. "It's on the defensive end. You're not going to win hardly any games—any at all—if a team shoots 60 percent against you."
DALLAS—As Moody Coliseum emptied around 3:30 local time on Saturday afternoon, Boopie Miller emerged from the SMU locker room holding the game ball. He had earned it.
Miller was the engine behind a 97-point explosion that saw SMU race to a 97-83 victory that included a 58-point second half from the Mustangs. In that decisive half, the trio of Miller, BJ Edwards and Corey Washington had 45 points and ten assists with one turnover. In that half, Carolina's entire team had 44 points and eight assists with four turnovers. The Mustangs put up 1.43 points per possession for the game and a scalding 1.71 in the second half.
And it all came against a Carolina team that entered the game third in the nation and tops in the Atlantic Coast Conference in field goal percentage defense. The Tar Heels didn't have three straight stops in the entire second half and did it just twice in the final 35 minutes of the game.
Honestly, the biggest surprise as Miller held the game ball is that there weren't still flames coming out of it.
"They've got really good guard play that can get anywhere out there on the floor," Hubert Davis said on the Tar Heel Sports Network. "With their quickness and ability to get to their spots they can score and distribute. They have good spacing. Boopie controlled everything with the ball and it's very tough to get the ball out of his hands. When we did, guys stepped up and made a three."
That's really the story of the game: the potent SMU offense, which now leads the ACC in scoring. Carolina has two losses this season and in both of those games, the opposing point guard—Michigan State's Jeremy Fears Jr. and SMU's Miller—dictated play by getting to any spot on the floor that he wanted.
And while it's probably not reasonable to expect the Carolina offense to keep pace with an opponent that is putting up season-high production, Davis was frustrated with some of the Heels' second half struggles.
"It felt like everything we did from an offensive standpoint was hard and difficult," Davis said. "Every cut and move and dribble and shot was just very difficult. Even in transition it seemed difficult to score. We need to look at that."
On a day when there was a huge Carolina turnout in Dallas—the cheers when the Heels took the floor in pregame caused multiple SMU players to noticeably raise an eyebrow—the visitors relied mostly on Seth Trimble to dictate the offense. He played 36 minutes, more than Kyan Evans (14) and Derek Dixon (17) combined.
Trimble was productive, scoring 22 points to go with his five assists and zero turnovers. But he also looked fatigued in the second half (Carolina had to take an uncharacteristic timeout with 8:59 remaining just to provide a breather for some tired Heels), the product of having to chase Miller around every square inch of the court while also being responsible for generating so much of the offense.
Normally, some of that burden would have fallen on Carolina's talented frontcourt duo, but for one of the first times this season, both Henri Veesaar (6-for-11) and Caleb Wilson (4-for-11) looked rather human in the same game.
The offensive concerns, however, are secondary. "We still shot 48 percent from the field," Davis said. "It's on the defensive end. You're not going to win hardly any games—any at all—if a team shoots 60 percent against you."
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